Tech —

Review: BlackBerry 10 is better, much better, late than never

From Gestures to the Hub, BlackBerry 10 has won us over. But is it too late?

E-mail and calendaring

To configure an e-mail account, you'll have to navigate to the Hub's settings panel. From there, you can add a new e-mail account, view existing ones, or modify the settings. You can either enter your e-mail address and BlackBerry 10 will try to fetch the server settings, or you can click the Advanced button to add a specific type of account. BlackBerry 10 supports Exchange ActiveSync, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!, IMAP, and POP3, as well as CalDAV and CardDAV right out of the box. As an aside, ActiveSync e-mails are also no longer processed through the BlackBerry Enterprise Server as they were in previous iterations of the BlackBerry OS.

As we mentioned, e-mails are all a part of the BlackBerry Hub. Holding down on a specific message brings up a thin sidebar with options to reply to sender, reply to all, forward, mark as unread, flag, file away in a folder, invite to a meeting, and add as a contact. You can also select the ellipses button to bring up the full menu. If you need to select more than one e-mail to delete, flag, mark as read or unread, or file away, you'll have to choose the Select More option.

Enlarge/ Hit the settings button in the bottom right corner to view more options for each message.

Enlarge/ Hit Select More to pick what action to take with the selected messages.

When composing e-mails, you can do so manually with the keyboard or by dictation (we'll get to that in just a bit). Frequently contacted addresses will pop up in the address section of the e-mail, which is a neat touch, but the options don't change based on the address you're sending from.

From within the BlackBerry Hub, you can also hold your finger and slide down from the middle of the screen to view your calendar at a glance. You can send calendar invitations from the Hub in a reply, or you can do so from within the Calendar application. There, you can switch between e-mail accounts to distinguish between personal and work events.

Keyboard

Although BlackBerry announced a phone with a physical keyboard alongside the Z10, it still had to completely revamp its notion of the virtual keyboard and fashion it into something that appealed to both devoted physical keyboard users and touchscreen connoisseurs alike. Fortunately, the company has a hit on its hands.

The letters and numbers on the BlackBerry virtual keyboard feature a familiar font and frets between the keys just like on a real BlackBerry device. As you type, the keyboard will attempt to learn your virtual mannerisms, preferred terminology, and frequently typed words to easily auto-fill in the future. It also uses that contextual information to guess where your finger is going to land next. If it guesses correctly, the word will pop up above the letter it assumes you were going to press, where you can then quickly flick up to select it. This mechanism is easy to learn, simple to use, surprisingly accurate, and ultimately results in a fantastic virtual typing experience. Three out of three Ars writers agree the BlackBerry 10 keyboard is one of the best virtual keyboards we've ever used.

BlackBerry Balance

BlackBerry has introduced a new feature called BlackBerry Balance to help users keep both personal and work data sequestered into their own separate spaces. IT departments can enable the feature through BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10 (or just "BES"), and users will receive an activation password to set up the work space. BES 10 will begin to remotely install applications and input e-mail accounts based on what the IT department sets up for that user. After the installation is complete, the user can simply swipe down from the apps page to switch between modes. All of the data is secured by 256-bit AES encryption, and any file created within the work space will stay within the confines of that partition. However, common apps will have to be downloaded twice, even if they already exist in the personal space.

Regretfully, we were unable to test the functionality of BlackBerry Balance because we do not employ BES 10 here at Ars, and the feature is unavailable without it. Though we didn't get to test it for ourselves, the concept of BlackBerry Balance is smart and something readers are clearly interested in. IT departments are given oversight of company data on what might be a personally owned device. If the user leaves his or her job, all of that data can be remotely wiped, with all of the personal data remaining intact. BlackBerry believes the Balance feature will mark a huge difference from other platforms in the enterprise space that require third-party software to yield the same split-brain functionality.

Unfortunately, there are potential issues with this implementation. For a shop without any BlackBerry 10 devices and without BES, the BES software is just one more third-party application that must be purchased and maintained. Other mobile device management solutions with broader applicability to the Android and iOS space have an advantage if a company is starting with a blank slate. On the other hand, legacy BlackBerry shops that want to implement BES and BlackBerry 10 devices will be excited by the synergy.

Security

Enlarge/ A quick look at the BlackBerry 10's security and privacy panel.

For casual users, BlackBerry has included a helpful heaping of security features. Among these are BlackBerry's version of Find my Phone, the ability to tweak and set application permissions, built-in password complexity controls, and automatic file encryption.

With BlackBerry Protect, you can easily keep track of your phone and its whereabouts. Log in at protect.blackberry.com to locate your lost handset—the service uses Bing maps and is quite accurate at pinpointing the device's location. You can play a sound if you think it's hidden in the couch cushions. You can even send a message if you think someone nabbed it from your pocket, then remotely wipe it so that no one else peeks at your data.

Locating your lost device is easy from the BlackBerry website.

Enlarge/ For some reason, we don't think this will work in getting back the phone.

BlackBerry 10 also allows users to disable specific application permissions. For instance, if you feel uncomfortable with Facebook's location data mining, you can specifically turn that off within the settings, though this will also disable access to features like Places.

There are also added password complexity controls that ensure the alphanumeric key unlocking your device is challenging enough. BlackBerry 10 utilizes password logic to prevent you from using commonly used password sequences. This means you can't use “password123" to lock the phone.

Enlarge/ Turn on the device password to get that extra added bit of protection.

Lastly, users can encrypt their personal files in the Settings. All it requires is a device password to work. After the switch is flipped, it will take a few minutes to encrypt data that already exists, but from there it will continue to encrypt any new files that are created or edited.

Voice recognition and dictation

Siri and Google Now have wooed us with their odd responses, slight inflections, and spot-on contextual information. It's hard to think that anything could live up to these two services. In BlackBerry's case, its voice recognition feature is a step in the right direction, but there are definitely some kinks to work out—many kinks, in fact—before it's up to par with the other players.

Enlarge/ BlackBerry's voice recognition service doesn't have a name, but it can perform a few commands.

To use the voice functionality, simply hold down the play button located on the phone until the dialog pops up and speak your command. Like Siri and Google Now, every query on BlackBerry's voice recognition software is sent out via the network you're connected to, whether it's Wi-Fi or cellular. It also recognizes a number of commands, like whether you want to send a text, e-mail, or BBM message, call a contact, search the Internet, schedule an appointment, or make a note. What it can't do is tell you who played in the Super Bowl this year or fetch directions to a local flower shop without first referring you to Bing. It also can't look up the weather or get you transit times. It has a difficult time understanding if you speak too quickly or if there is background noise, like a television in the distance or a small crowd of people.

While the voice recognition may be handy for taking quick notes and reminding you to pick up milk on the way home, it's not much of a personal assistant beyond that. When it was asked to remind me to do something in two hours, the voice recognition software could not recognize the context of the number two. Worse, when I attempted to dictate a sentence (albeit an awkward one), the BlackBerry had some trouble understanding what I was saying even though I was enunciating clearly. The voice recognition service wasn't a smooth experience overall.